Overrepresented Images

The media appears as one of the most influential sources, which shapes our personal opinion. However, when it comes to stories about young people, it often shows biased and overrepresented images. This essay will consider different representations of youth in media discourses and the impact that these images have on the lived experiences of young people.

Since the 1960s, when media were invoking young people as ‘folk devils’ creating a ‘moral panic’, we continue to be exposed to more and more negative images of youth. The analysis conducted by Wayne et al. showed that 90% of 286 analysed television stories about youth were related to violent crimes and terrorism (2008:78). Adolescents are usually depicted as unfinished and incompletely socialized products in the period of transitions (Vadeboncoeur, 2005:1). Nevertheless, the media’s ‘objectified’ vision of dangerous and troublesome ‘risk seekers’ expresses the hegemonic position of adults and their need of control and guidance (Vadeboncoeur, 2005:5). According to Vadeboncoeur, humans socially construct meanings and interpretations. Thereafter teenagers’ ‘difficult
Nevertheless, most of time, young people do not recognize themselves in what they see in the media. Rather than thinking about failing transitions to adulthood, they try to adapt themselves to social change and seize the opportunities that are obviously different from those offered to previous generations. The definition of what people think about adolescence is a result of social and cultural understanding. However, it seems that the discourses which shape this definition concern much more adult stereotypes of young people based on the desires, imagination and interests of the adult world, than on young people’s own perceptions and experiences (Wyn,